The see of Nafpaktos is attested since the 4th century, and was initially a
suffragan of
Corinth and later of
Athens. Like the rest of
Illyricum, Nafpaktos depended on the
pope of Rome until 733, when
Leo III the Isaurian annexed it to the
Patriarchate of Constantinople. Its bishop, Anthony, is attested among the participants of the councils held at
Constantinople in
869–70 and
879–80. When Nafpaktos became the seat of the new
Byzantine thema of
Nicopolis in the second half of the 9th century, the bishopric was elevated to a
metropolitan see in the late 9th century, assuming the role which
Nicopolis had formerly held. It is thus that the see appears in the sources from the 9th century on as "Nafpaktos of Nicopolis" (μητρόπολις Ναυπάκτου Νικοπόλεως), counting initially eight suffragans covering all of
Epirus:
Vonditsa,
Aetos,
Acheloos,
Rogoi,
Ioannina,
Photike,
Hadrianopolis,
Buthrotum. In the
Escorial Taktikon of the early 970s, the bishopric of
Chimara has been added, and during the 11th century, two further sees,
Kozyli and
Arta were established under Nafpaktos. Following the
Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria ca. 1020, the northern suffragan dioceses came under the jurisdiction of the
Archbishopric of Ohrid. In 1025, the metropolitan was at the head of a rebellion of the local populace, which led to the death of the local
strategos George. Emperor
Constantine VIII (r. 1025–28) brutally suppressed the uprising, and
blinded the metropolitan. Under its metropolitan,
John Apokaukos, the see of Nafpaktos gained in importance and headed the local
synod for the southern half of the Epirote domains, but was soon overshadowed by the Archbishopric of Ohrid under the energetic
Demetrios Chomatenos. The town came under
Frankish rule from 1294, == References ==